Author: armstrong.wou@gmail.com

“No! Don’t think outside the box. Once you say that, you’ve established that there is a box.”—Walt Disney

I hope that I am a person who thinks beyond the box.  I want to think that there are creative solutions to every problem.  Yesterday was a day when I felt that desire challenged.  I had the thought driving home from work that “it is hard to think outside the box when people don’t want you to see beyond the box.”  Then, I came across the above quote from Walt Disney—a man who had no regard for “the box”.

I have written several times about kaizen—i.e., constant improvement.  I long for continuous growth.  Life cannot remain stagnant.  Growth, by its very definition, cannot be contained.  So, Walt is correct.  There can be no box.  If there is a box, it is imaginary.  It is an illusion that constrains us.  People, who would have us think that there is a box, imagine high walls.  When they tell us to “think outside the box”, they hope that we won’t see beyond the constraints they set for us.  “Welcome to the grand illusion…” (Styx).

Don’t buy into the deception.  Don’t allow yourself to be stuck in an imaginary box trying to get outside.  There is no box!!

There are no limits to our possibilities.  The only limits are the reigns we put on creativity.  Again, we have a choice.  We can believe the nonsense that our circumstances are fixed, or we can challenge the bounds of possibility.

I, for one, refuse to accept the word “can’t”.  Can’t, after all, has never done anything!

Robert Kiyosaki wrote: “The word “can’t” makes strong people weak, blinds people who can see, saddens happy people, turns brave people into cowards, robs a genius of their brilliance, causes rich people to think poorly, and limits the achievements of that great person living inside us all.”  It, like the “box”, is a deceiver of many.  Don’t let the small mindedness of others limit you.  The box is in their head.  Don’t let it in yours.

I don’t see a box.  All I see are possibilities.  Now, you can stand there and tell me there is a box, but I will walk around you or through you to prove there is not.  I don’t need to “think outside the box.”  There is no box!

Carpe momento!

“Don’t let someone tell you that you can’t do something.  Not even me.  You got a dream, you gotta protect it.  When people can’t do something themselves, they’re gonna tell you that you can’t do it.  You want something, go get it. Period.”—Chris Gardener, ‘Pursuit of Happiness’

Progression. Overload. Over-reaching. Maximal recoverable volume.  These are terms I frequent use in my exercise science courses.  They relate to physical training—especially strength training, but they have meaning in our pursuit of “well-centered fitness” (Spiritual, Intellectual, Emotional, and Social, as well as Physical fitness).  Personal growth requires cycles of training.  In exercise science, we refer to this as periodization.

In my physical training, I just started a deload week.  This is a planned reduction in the volume and training load to allow for the body to recover and heal after a period of intensive training.  It follows the theory of “supercompensation”.  Essentially, one cycles training such that the intensity of the exercise increases over a series of weeks, challenging the “maximal recoverable volume—referred to as “over-reaching”.  The idea is that one pushes the limits of one’s ability to recover from the quantity of training and follows with a week of significantly reduced training to allow for greater adaptation (i.e., supercompensation). 

Sometimes, in pursuit of our goals we need to consider a planned rest period.  Vacation.  Sabbath. Mental health day.  Etc.  We can’t push and push and push and expect continued progress.

In our personal growth plan, it is important to back off from time to time.  Many religions promote a weekly Sabbath—a day of rest from work.  Doing so allows for physical rest and spiritual rejuvenation.  I recommend such breaks from work, but also from exercise, diet, etc.  Growth-oriented people work hard, and our growth habits take effort and energy.  Cycling these like we might periodize exercise makes good sense.  Leave six days for exercising and diet.  Take one day to relax—to do things that rejuvenate the soul.  (If you’re dieting, this doesn’t mean binge.  It means take a break from counting calories and macros.  Eat—in moderation—some of the foods you might be depriving yourself.)

Allowing one’s self a well-centered deload helps one focus less on what he or she needs to do to accomplish his or her goals and more on what has been accomplished. It allows for a time of reflection. It permits time for others who might be somewhat neglected in one’s pursuit of self-betterment.  It serves our Emotional dimension—the keystone of our well-centered fitness.

It has taken me time to adjust to taking deload weeks in my strength training program.  I have a tendency to want to keep pushing.  It has forced me to take time to rest.  I still perform the exercises, but at a significantly reduced load.  It has actually helped with my technique and has given me better results.  (I am glad I lift weights at home, because my ego would take a hit lifting such light weights in public—ha ha!)

It will likewise take time to adjust to regular deloads in other areas.  In the long-run, however, the benefits will be tremendous.  Some areas in which to start:

–Take one day off from work each week.  Don’t just not go to work.  Remove yourself from the stress of work.  Relax!  Spend time with family and friends.

–Take a ‘15-minute Check-in’ with your spouse or partner.  Sit down and share your day, your needs, your feelings, etc.  Take 15 minutes to check out from the busy-ness of life and focus on your significant other.

–Set time aside for one-to-one attention on your children.

–Take a 6+1 approach to diet and exercise, as well as your other more strenuous growth plan activities.

–Take one day to do something recreational—to re-create.

–Take a vacation.  Inexpensive weekend getaways can be wonderfully refreshing.

–Change your routine.

The possibilities are endless.  Just be sure to give yourself a break now and then.

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!

“It’s easy to feel like you haven’t accomplished anything big in life so far.  It’s easy to believe that you will never reach your goal.  It’s easy to listen to the naysayers.  Refusing to quit is much harder.  Refusing to settle takes guts.”—Isaiah Hankel

We often expect life to be a steady journey.  It never is.  There is no such thing as “smooth sailing” or an “easy ride”.  Some see life as a constant struggle.  Others expect the “right” path to be clear. Life is neither.  Neither is life a rollercoaster ride.  The reality is that none of us are on the same path.  We may, at times, share the path, but our routes are very different.

The momentum in our life is never constant.  At times, we will need to overcome inertia.  At times, we will feel like we are rolling along on the track to success.  Or might feel like we are “rolling downhill like a snowball headed for Hell” (Merle Haggard—always good to slip a good country lyric in from time to time).  Wherever we feel we are on the path, we are not going to be there for long.  Things will change.

When we feel like we are getting nowhere or like we are on the wrong path, we have a choice: keep going or change direction.  The question really is: “What path am I supposed to be on?”  If one has considered this and has truly believed him/herself to be on the right path, then one is probably on the right path.  So, if this is the case, to keep going is one’s only option.  To quit, then, just stalls our progress.  One either turns down the wrong path, from which one must then find the way back, or one simply sits down and waits until “inspiration” comes.  Either way, progress is stalled.

There is wisdom in Dory’s words: “Just keep swimming.”  We just gotta keep going.  Forward through the hard times.  Ignore discouragement.  Ignore the naysayers.  Ignore the propensity to quit.  One does not see what lies ahead.

Like I have written before, what I write in this blog is written to myself.  I, like everyone else, face the struggle of knowing whether I am on the right path and question why I haven’t “accomplished anything big in life so far”.  I just came out of a term of teaching in which I felt that nothing I did was effective.  I questioned myself at every turn.  But, if I look back over my career, I would find that this happens with greater frequency than I might want to admit.  Always, though, the acknowledgement of progress comes.  While I might not have “accomplished anything big in life so far”.  The affirmation that I am having an impact always comes when I need it—e.g., an e-mail from a former student or a comment from a friend.  Following my Winter term struggles, I walked into a tremendous first week of the Spring term (at least from my perspective).  My students seemed engaged and enthusiastic.  I felt every day that I “left everything in this room”.  Now Monday may be different.  If it is, so be it.  Every day is not going to be a great day.  There is always a tomorrow.  The important thing is that we keep pushing forward.  Today, I feel like I am back on the path to success—rather, I feel like I am successful on my path.

If you have determined to do something, and it feels hard.  Don’t quit.  Keep going.  Push through the difficulty until you succeed or until the path reveals another direction.  Sometimes it takes just one more day.

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!

Time for a bit of levity in my blog.  I teach exercise science, so I spend my days talking about the importance of exercise and the various trends in the fitness industry.  It seems to me that one of the most significant trends in fitness is the notion that six-pack abs (abdominal muscles) are a necessity for one to demonstrate his or her fitness.  The “fit and fat” debate is lost.  Our only goal is a washboard stomach.  A higher oxidative capacity (i.e., VO_2max)?  Well, that isn’t necessary.  Just do a 12-minute HIIT workout and burn those calories.  Muscle strength?  No one cares.  Just lift the weights that look big.  Flexibility?  Just be able to raise your arm high enough to take a selfie.  Muscle endurance?  How many crunches can you do?  More planks, bro.  Fitness is about appearance, dude.  Nice abs.

Here is my honest opinion: If my life is threatened, and I am looking for someone to have my back, I am not going to look for the guy with the great chiseled abs.  I am going to look for the guy with the thick neck and cauliflower ears.  Yes.  I am going to look to the guy with useable strength and the experience using it.

Now, I am not knocking bodybuilding.  Bodybuilders work really hard to get their physiques.  Personally, I don’t want to put in that kind of time and effort.  On top of this, I like food.  (And I don’t have the best genes for bodybuilding.)

I would encourage a shift in the focus of the general population.  If you are not training for bodybuilding or a modeling career, worry less about the abs.  Consider the other aspects of health.  Do what will improve function.  Don’t go shirtless, if you can’t wear shorts because you have chicken legs.  (In other words, don’t “skip leg day”.)  Exercise to be healthy and well.  If you can be more athletically active, do so.  Abs are not a requirement of fitness.  They are the product of fitness.

Exercise to what suits you.  Develop your potential, but don’t compare yourself with others.  Bodies differ.  Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Have fun.  Get active.  Be fit!

Carpe momento!

Image source:  https://mmainsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/mag_ear_01jr_576.jpg

I have a fairly long commute.  It is mostly highway driving, so it isn’t too bad.  I don’t speed, per se, but I certainly don’t want to go any slower than I need to go.  (So, OK, I like to set my cruise control about 5 mph over the speed limit and maintain a fairly constant speed.  I am never the fastest on the highway, for sure.)  I like to follow the rules of the road.  I drive in the middle lane, except to pass or enter/exit the highway.  I don’t like to pass on the right.  (I don’t want to pass on the right.)  There seems to be a trend toward the majority of drivers traveling in the left-hand lane–i.e., passing lane—which is fine if you are going faster than the rest of the traffic.  However, there seems to be an increasing percentage of drivers going immediately to the left lane and traveling at or below the speed limit.  Being from the east, I thought at first that this was a west coast thing.  Perhaps, but it seems to be a national trend.  It is annoying, and, not only that, it is dangerous.  It forces more aggressive and impatient drivers to pass on the right—often weaving in and out of vehicles and tailgating.  Overall, it slows the flow of traffic.

Maybe this post is an excuse to vent, but the topic coincides with some other observations about how we deal with others on our road to success.  Moreover, I see the parallels in how we affect others on their road to success.  We are all going somewhere in life.  Most of us are focused on getting where we need to go as quickly and effectively as possible.  There will, however, always be people who impede our travel, and, frankly, we can be an impedance for others from time to time, as well.

There are numerous reasons why someone may insist on traveling in the fast lane and slow our progress.  Some are just ignorant to the fact.  They are going about their own business completely clueless as to what is going on around them.  (This was the lady in the Smart car, yesterday, whose speed varied from 60 to 75 in the passing lane as ate her breakfast driving down the highway.  And, of course, there are those who still insist on talking on their hand-held cell phone while driving….)  These people are simply self-absorbed and unaware.

There are those who, perhaps, think they are making a statement and controlling the speed of drivers on the road.  Maybe this is a socialist ideology (not trying to be political here) that we should all receive the same reward no matter what our effort.  These people wish no one greater or lesser success, so success should be limited to the least common denominator.  When we take this position, though, there is far less progress—we all move at less than 65 mph.

Then, there are those who intentionally slow or impede another’s success.  I saw an interesting video, yesterday, about a young man, significantly obese (roughly 700 lb or more), who spent his time trolling people on the computer—because it made him feel better about himself.  We see many people like this, who don’t wish to see others succeed because they can’t accept their own shortcomings.  In the case of this man, he trolled a bodybuilder chatroom.  In time, the participants requested that he post a picture of himself.  He did.  And, surprisingly, the group did not respond with fat shaming.  Instead, they began to encourage him to take the weight off.  They focused on helping him.  They got him moving and exercising, and the weight came off.  He is a new man.  He is now filled with self-confidence and, moreover, has given up his negativity.

We have choices on the highway of life.  First, we have to decide that we want to proceed on a path to success.  Second, we have to decide are we going to help others or block their success.  We all see the greatest success when we stick to the proper lane.  Encourage others in their success.  Let them pass if they must.  Don’t allow jealousy or self-centeredness to cause you to be an impedance.  Help others succeed and, surely, they will help you.  Above all be patient.  Not everyone has the desire or the means to be (extra)ordinary.  Travel your path and be supportive of others.

Carpe momento!

Travis Beck was one of many people with whom I have become friends, despite never meeting face-to-face.  I have made many friend through social media who I value greatly.  Friendships and relationships come in many forms.  I happened to connect with Travis through common research interests.  It is actually hard to believe that I have known Travis for roughly 12 years and have never met.  I am sure we have communicated more than a half a dozen times a year—usually many more (especially when he was helping me understand some challenging aspect of my research).  I just checked my list, and Travis coauthored three scientific papers with me (a drop in the bucket compared to his total productivity), and he was instrumental in at least five more.  Thanks to Travis, I appear a lot smarter than I am.

Travis was a guy who, despite teaching courses at the University of Oklahoma, mentoring graduate students, conducting research, publishing research, and making time for his new family, would always respond to my e-mails within hours.  So, when he didn’t respond to my e-mail last week, I was concerned.  Today, I learned, rightfully so.  Travis died on February 26, 2017 of nodular melanoma—a brain tumor.  I lost one of the best friends I never met.

I actually connected with Travis through a series of his former classmates from the University of Nebraska-Kearney (Tammy K Evetovich, Joel Cramer, Joe Weir, et al.) in response to what began as a simple question about accelerometers for mechanomyography.  Travis and I were never actually able to connect at a professional conference or elsewhere, but I can honestly say there are few (including my own college professors) who taught or inspired me more.  Travis not only helped set the course for my academic scholarship, he also set a powerful example for me as a person.

Travis showed me how to be selfless.  While many researchers are protective of their knowledge (i.e., are not willing to share the spotlight scholastically), Travis went out of his way to be helpful.  I learned to be supportive of aspiring researchers and academics.  I learned to be more giving of my time and not expect anything in return.

Travis showed me how to work hard and expect much from my students—and myself.  He spent the better part of a summer in 2011 teaching me how to adapt Dr. Vinzenz von Tscharner’s “intensity analysis” for software I had available to me at Western Oregon University.  I could just as well have just given me the code to do the analysis, but he knew it would teach me nothing.  As he said, “you don’t really learn something until you are first completely confused by it”.  In other words, your need to struggle in order to learn.  As he took me to the gates of wavelet hell and back that summer, I learned as much about myself as I did about analyzing non-stationary bioelectrical signals in the time-frequency domains.  Over time, it became more of a friendship than a collegial relationship.

Despite his relentless efforts in the labs at UO, Travis finally made time for romance.  I knew Travis valued family.  He spoke often of his parents in Nebraska.  I believe he considered his students and peers as family.  But, I felt a sense of relief when he announced to me he was getting married.  I thought for sure “this guy spends way too much time in his lab to have time for a girlfriend.”  Amazingly, he did and—from all I heard from him—she was amazing.  On top of getting married, he immediately became a step-father to two lovely girls.  So, on top of teaching, researching, publishing, and romancing, he started coaching youth soccer!  Family was clearly a priority.  It taught me that, whatever my aspirations in scholarship might be, family is always first.  (I knew this, of course, but it gave me an excuse to prioritize research less.)

As I write this today, thinking about Travis and our loss, I am reminded of the opportunities I have to have an impact on the world.  Our reach is far greater than we might think.  Moreover, our life is short.  Live it to the fullest and share it even more.

I am grateful for all who have come into my life—however they may have come.  I am not willing to sell any relationship short or to consider anyone less of a friend because I have never actually met them.  I get to share life (no matter how short the time) with some truly awesome people.

Carpe momento!

https://www.youcaring.com/marybethpricebeck-765953

 

“Even though the future seems far away, it is actually beginning right now.”—Mattie Stepanek 

Whatever you are dreaming for, it begins now—this moment.  Carpe momento!

I love new beginnings and fresh starts.  Indeed, every day is a fresh start.  This does not mean, however, that life is a series of Mulligans—of do-overs.  Life is not a Bill Murray movie (i.e., Groundhog Day).  It is, nevertheless, a chance to do things better and to do what we have failed or neglected to do the day(s) before.  It is an opportunity.

I was reminded, the other day, that on average we have 25,550 days.  Depending on one’s perspective, that is a great number or a small number.  Chances are, the one who thinks this is a great number will likely waste a greater number of his days.  The one who believes this to be a precious few will, on the other hand, use her days wisely.  We have no guarantee that our number will match this 25,550 days.  For some it will be fewer.  If we are fortunate, we may have many more.  Fortunately, we don’t know our number of days.  So, each sunrise is more precious than the previous.

The value of our days grows exponentially with each new dawn.  Into each new day one carries lessons and wisdom from the days before.  Each day carries new relationships and experiences that add value to the subsequent day.

Let us not take the present for granted.  Let us live each day not as if it is our last, per se; rather, let us live each day for the impact that is will have on tomorrow—whether we will see that tomorrow or not.

Be your best today for a better tomorrow.

(Photo credit: http://www.chrisupdegrave.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/mt-hood-sunrise-oregon.jpg)